


Hello there, my Enemy

by twilitalks



Category: RWBY
Genre: (HOW COULD I FORGET THAT), (always prefaced with a TW), (or an attempt at it sometimes), ??kind of but not really, Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Character Turned Into Vampire, Character Turned Into a Ghost, Child Abandonment, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Romance, F/F, Faunus Exist, Getting to Know Each Other, Ghosts, Humor, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Interspecies Romance, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Psychology, Romance, Slight horror, Vampire Hunters, Yang's a ghost hunter and loves her some spooky ghosties, Yangst, journey with an unseen victory in sight, light fluff, white fang exists
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-05-20 19:28:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14900574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twilitalks/pseuds/twilitalks
Summary: Answers. Hunger. Damnation. Answers. These needs bind the four together. Guide them on their journey, and tear them apart. But just how far can one hunter-in-training, a vampire yearning to become human again, and their companions really go before they reach the end, answers or not?Teens really grow up too fast nowadays.(Vampires, ghosts, and other supernatural beings AU)





	1. Red

**Author's Note:**

> READ BEFORE CONTINUING!!!!!!  
> wow, I cant believe I've had this AU and the first couple chapters stuck in my docs for about TWO years now (around vol3 and 4). For some reason, I could never get it the way I wanted, and would lose inspiration, etc- but the new vol5 soundtrack (and more specifically Path to Isolation) got me super hype to actually do something with this old AU I fleshed out, so here we go!! Posting this so I now have no excuse to have it sitting in an abandoned doc, and i get myself to work on it. 
> 
> also!!! the first couple chapters are going to be shorter, and backstory centered on the four girls (think like the four trailers), and this chapter leaves off where chapter 5 will begin. They aren't necessarily chronological, but they take place in the character's past as long as its italicized. Hope everyone enjoys!

_Red danced before her vision as she giggled, struggling a bit before tossing the cape her uncle had teasingly covered her and scooped her up in towards the floor, her hair now a mess._

_“Did you really do that, Uncle Qrow?” A six year old Ruby asked with bright eyes of admiration, still jittery even while being carried._ _“Did you really see a vampire 7 feet tall?!”_

_“Of course I did- what, ya calling me a liar?” He retorted, and Ruby giggled again, before it turned into a combination of a screech and a laugh as he lifted her into the air and gave her a small toss, immediately catching her again before placing her safely on the ground. Instinctively, she reached her small arms up in a silent request to be lifted again._

_“Uncle Qrow, Uncle Qrow- I want to go fight vampires with you! Take me to go see the vampires!” She pleaded, excited at the new stories her Uncle had whenever he visited. He chuckled above her._

_“Woah there, little miss,” Taiyang started as he made his way over to his younger daughter, messing with her already messy hair._

_“You're a little too young to go out on missions with your Uncle, now,” he reminded._

_“Nu-uh!” Ruby reminded back. “You said I was big now! Remember?” She turned back towards her uncle. “I can ride without training wheels now!”_

_Qrow gave a semi-impressed huff._ _Well, that's pretty cool. Maybe you are big.”_

_“She can't go with you!” Yang protested from the couch, where she had remained quiet for most of the exchange. She turned now to face them, peering over the back of it. “That's so irresponsible- she's just a child!”_

_“Woah, there.” Qrow frowned, not expecting that tone of voice._

_Ruby stuck her tongue out at her. “Uncle Qrow can do whatever he wants!” She protested. It was true. Ruby had seen him do whatever he wanted countless times. It was how they got to climb on all the museum statues to take cool photos when no one was looking, and snuck snacks into movies and got to play video games with violence in them at his house._

_“You can't boss him around!”_

_“I can if he's being dumb!”_

_“Yang!” Taiyang said with exasperation, and the blonde pouted and looked away. “What's gotten into you?”_

_It happened sometimes. Yang’s temper had gotten worse lately._

_She huffed, crossing her arms. “I'm just saying. Ruby's a little kid.”_

_“Why don't you let the adults worry about that kind of stuff, okay kiddo?”_

_“But I'm old enough to know that's a dumb idea too!” Yang protested suddenly. Taiyang frowned, but Qrow spoke up._

_“No, Tai, she's right.” He said with a smile, heading over towards Yang, who scowled and looked away. He instead flopped over onto the couch, and nudged at her teasingly. “Come on,” he grinned. “You know I would never do anything that hurt either of you two, right?”_

_“Yeah, but you can't let a little kid go do something so dangerous!” Yang protested with fiery passion, like she wasn't a little kid as well, so Qrow couldn't help but laugh._

_“Fair point.” He humored her, sensing the overprotectiveness could be a byproduct of the absence of someone. A byproduct of Yang trying to fill in the gaps left by someone. Of Yang feeling she had to grow up much quicker, now._

_He tried not to think about it too much._

_“Guess you're right there, firecracker.”_

_“I know I am!”_

_Ruby couldn't believe what she was hearing. She felt so betrayed!_

_“But Uncle Qrowwwwww!” She whined, rushing over to them both. “You just said I could go!! That's not fair!” She stomped on the floor to make her point._

_“Tell you what,” Her Uncle said, picking Ruby up again. “How about we do some Vampire-hunting training first? It gets pretty rough out there, kid. We have to prep you for anything.” He said seriously._

_Ruby’s eyes widened with excitement. “Like what?”_

_“Well,” He thought for a moment, before poking at Ruby’s neck, causing her to squeal and scrunch up her shoulders. “They love to bite! You gotta be more cautious, Ruby. This training is a good idea- you would’ve been a vampire by now.”_

_“Cool!”_

_“No- not cool!” Qrow sighed. “You’ve got a lot to learn. C’mon, let’s start. You coming, Yang-ster?” He asked as he turned to his older niece, who was sitting on the couch with a pout._

_“No. That stuff’s lame. Vampires are lame.”_

_Taiyang and Qrow exchanged a look, and Ruby didn’t understand it very much._

_“Geez, Yang!” She said instead. “You’re no fun!”_ _  
_

_Her older sister ignored her, flipping to a channel with a ghost-hunting show._

_Seeing she couldn’t convince her alone, Ruby turned to her uncle and gave him the best puppy eyes she could manage._

_It worked, just like it always did._

_“Hey, Yang,” He said, placing Ruby down and heading over to the couch, leaning against it. She didn’t look up. “You know, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about vampires, is that once you find one, there’s usually some sort of ghosts not far behind…..”_

_Yang perked up a little, and gave a cautious glance._

_“So, maybe Vampire Training won’t be that lame after all?” Qrow grinned._

_“.....You swear you’re not lying?” Yang asked with a suspicious look._

_“Cross my heart.”_

_That was all Yang needed, as she hopped off the couch and joined with new-found excitement._

_“Well, c’mon then, let’s start already!”_

_Ruby grinned happily, grabbing her red cape off the back of the nearby chair and pulling it on as they ran to the backyard._

She took a deep breath, let the air and earth and wind and elements around her to fill her lungs, swirl up inside her, and flow back out again as she let out her breath. She kept Crescent Rose to her right, and Zwei to her left, as they circled the perimeter again, feeling the night around her and letting the stars remind her the limitless world around her, letting the resting flowers remind her of the fragility of it.

Still, she kept a smile in her heart and power in her steps.

_Sneaking down into the kitchen, wrapped up in a warm, red blanket, Ruby tried not to trip over anything in her journey._

_But seeing the light in the kitchen, hearing the murmur of familiar, friendly voices speak in hushed, sad tones made her slow down, caution her approach._

_“... Yang’s growing up pretty fast, huh Tai?” A laugh from her uncle. “Sometimes it brings me back. She’s definitely got her skeptical streak from her. The protectiveness, now, that’s definitely from you.”_

_A sigh, Ruby could tell it was her dad’s._

_“I don’t know what to do about it. She’s been like that ever since…..”_

_Ruby scrunched up her face and tried to listen. If he said anything after, she couldn’t hear it._

_“I just don’t know what to do. She shouldn’t have to worry about all this adult stuff. Neither should Ruby. So, could you maybe stop encouraging her with the huntress training?”_

_She couldn’t see, but she could tell her Uncle Qrow was probably leaning against the kitchen counter and giving Dad an unimpressed look._

_“What are you talking about?”_

_“C’mon, Qrow? Really?”_

_“What? She likes it, she thinks it’s interesting. Kids need to have a hobby.”_

_“Yeah, but does it have to be_ that _exact hobby?”_

_“It’s good for kids to be active.”_

_What?_

_“Stop encouraging Ruby to go out hunting for Vampires- hunting for anything. I don’t want her to do any of that.”_

_Ruby felt herself get angry. What was he even talking about? What was so wrong about learning how to do all that cool stuff?!_

_“Oh, yeah? Then how’s she gonna learn to defend herself?”_

_“She’s going to learn combat and self defense for when she needs it, not to go looking for trouble.”_

_“You think that’s what I’m doing?” Ruby shifted a bit in her spot by the kitchen doorway. Uncle Qrow sounded angry- the kind of angry that started tiny and grew quickly. “You think that’s what I go out and do?”_

_“I didn’t say that. Don’t put words into my mouth, Qrow.”_

_“I’m just teaching her because she wants to learn.” He said stiffly, which was kind of funny, because she could hear the looseness of her Uncle’s voice that he got whenever he drank from his Special Bottles. “Whether you like it or not, at some point, she’s either going to chose to follow in Summer’s footsteps, or chose her own path. I’d rather prepare her as much as I can while I still can for when that choice comes.”_

_Ruby frowned, all sleep-ridden and with child innocence. What was Uncle Qrow talking about? Why was Dad so against training for Vampire hunting?_

_“Honestly, Yang should join us more, too. She’s just as much as a target.”_

_Silence. Then:_

_“... Qrow, I’m worried for her. She’s just a kid- they’re both kids. They don’t need to go through this. I don’t know how to help them…. I don’t even know how to help myself with this. Just…. promise me you’ll cool it down? If something happens with you, too and….. Don’t risk leaving them just with me, okay? I’m barely me anymore…. They don’t deserve that. They’ve already lost so much….”_

_Ruby didn’t know why, but she felt guilty listening to this. She felt sad. She felt like crying._

_She scurried back up the stairs, and hopped into Yang’s bed and woke her- asked her to hold her and squeeze her hands like mom used to when she had nightmares. She protested at first, upset for being woken up, but noticing her sister’s tears, Yang did so._

_Ruby tried to erase the sad conversation by speaking it into the air and out of her mind as Yang listened and gently rocked them back and forth._

Ruby tossed the red of her cape over her shoulder and breathed out again, a tired smile on her features.

She was sure she was going to call it quits for the night, return back to the warmth of her home and her bed and her thick blankets, but something greater than her guided her vision up, up, up……

Up to the tree where a pair of two cold eyes stared back at her.


	2. White

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Weiss became 'Weiss Schnee'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> con-crunch completely took over my mind and i forgot this needed to update. Sorry about that!

_White was a color of purity. Of calmness. White was the color of her sister's smile, white was the color adorning their clothes. White was the color of innocence. White was the color of the falling snow kissing their cold cheeks as Weiss laughed, running into the woods her and Winter spent their childhoods in._

_White was the color of lightning, striking anything in its path. Destruction. Electricity in the air made Weiss want to run, want to go out into nature so suddenly, to taunt  her sister to come after her as she bounded towards the woods. Electricity whirled in the air around them as Weiss’s boots made paths in the snow and dirt._

_“Weiss, we do not have time to play around!” Winter called out to her, but chased her nonetheless, laughing into crisp air. They did have responsibilities to tend to, but the_ _orphanage_ _wouldn't miss them for a few minutes.  Winter tossed her shovel aside and called after her sister again, giving chase._

_The two young, naive women ran through the familiar woods, away from the home they knew, if only for a while. Weiss skipped over the giant roots of the many trees, the area long mapped into her mind, into her muscles. She squinted against the wind, listened to her sister chasing her, and continued. Her skirts bumped against her clothed legs as her boots trampled over fresh snow, still barely an inch deep, a laugh ringing from deep within her chest as the cool air stung her lungs._

_“Weiss, slow down!” She heard the humor in Winter’s voice calling to her, and it only urged her deeper into the woods._

It's cold. It's uneasy and empty.

_Catching up with her younger sister, Winter laughed and encircled her arms around her with her puffy, white winter coat. Never letting go. Laughter bubbled from within them as Winter attempted to push Weiss into the fresh snow sticking to the ground._

_Weiss yelped at the cold, icy snow touched at the small exposed parts of her skin as she landed, pulling her sister alongside her as well._

_The two hadn't realized how truly alone they were in these woods until the loud crunch of a branch neither of them stepped on, and a few animals scattered within the bushes suddenly. They both stopped, scanning the area silently before a cold as steel grip fell on their shoulders. Winter gasped, and Weiss gasped, and the wind around them gasped._

Their bones felt like steel, now. Their bones felt like hollow steel.

 _In all her years of life, neither Winter nor Weiss never pictured a face so cold. The man eyed them- no, the_ being _eyed them- with icy, cruel eyes. Winter screamed as the being lunged at Weiss._

_Weiss felt panic run through her momentarily, though she had no chance to struggle as sharp pain quickly paraded up and down her neck, through her entire body. Her nerves cringed at the sharp pain that sunk into her skin, her bones, and her lifeforce. She tried to scream, she wasn't sure anything came out._

_Cold. Suddenly everything was very cold, a scalding cold.  A cold that pinched and squeezed and tore at every nerve and every cell in her bodies.  Weiss felt the life being sapped from her now frail body, painfully, slowly, and she felt the world go white. Her body bent in a painful manner, and her bones made a cracking noise that was not at all human. Beside her, she heard Winter scream again, the being now turning to face her and the broken branch Winter was beating him with as Weiss’s own body fell to the cold ground, twitching painfully and gasping for breath that escaped her tauntingly._

_The world around shifted and shaped. Blotted out, faded in and out. Her heart raced, but also painfully skipped. She fought against her lungs to breathe, she reached out her arm towards her sister, screaming when she saw the being turn on her next. Winter, the strongest person she knew, could only limply kick and punch before she watched her lifelessly relax in the being’s arms. Her eyes glazed over in a way Weiss hadn’t seen since the time the boy in the orphanage fell sick with an incurable fever. She tried to scream again, but her voice was sore, her neck_ burned _and she felt hypersensitive to the world she was being pulled from._

_She was suddenly acutely aware of every pattern on every leaf, every footstep against the snow in a nearby radius. Her heart tried to pump, she tried to breathe, but the lights tangled around her vision, and soon Winter was a blur that occasionally became so visible it hurt to look at. The world pulsed loudly in her ears, and she cried out in searing pain she felt in her skull, neck, and chest. She curled up, and faintly she heard Winter cry and try to bury herself in the snow to escape the burning feeling parading against their skin. Weiss looked at her arms, watched the color of life fade from her skin, watched her fingers tremble and an intense wave of dizziness knocked her back fully onto the snow from where she was trying to crawl to her sister. She let herself rest against it, to cry and succumb to the overwhelmingly painful poison cascading through her._

_The rest of the night, and the many nights following, quickly became a blur. A blur of pain, though not the same as the first few hours. It was a dull pain, pillowed and unsettling. The feeling of something inside them growing, stirring. The feeling of helplessness within their own bodies. Weiss was sure in the fleeting moments they were conscious, at times, her and Winter spoke. She couldn’t bring herself to remember early conversations. The only constant was the twisting thirst. When they gained mobility again after the first hour, it was the first to arrive as a full sense. Weiss scrambled up suddenly, with an animalistic need to drink something- anything, something she couldn’t quite understand, but Winter felt it too, and the two scrambled to the nearest river. They both knew it wasn’t wise to drink from unclean water, but Weiss felt as if she would die if she didn’t, so she scooped up water and drank as much as she could, trembling. It didn’t help. Winter splashed her entire face into the river, and drank greedily, but it didn’t help. Weiss scraped at the dirt and rocks and screamed in frustration. She was scared. Winter lunged toward a fish, almost on instinct, one she never had before. The fact that she caught it effortlessly surprised her so much she let it go accidentally._

_The Beings joined them, and they turned to them with a growl neither had ever been able to do prior to this. Weiss gritted her teeth, and realized her gums and jaw ached with a new, sore pain._

_Feed, their new Father told them. He coached them.  They were his children, and he was their Father now. They had never had a Father before, and something childish grew inside them as they found themselves listen to him. They nodded, they let him help them up and he calmed them when the pain became too much again. There was a woman as well. Their brains quickly learned that she was their Mother. She held their hair back and cooed at them when Winter began to cough and cough and cough until her voice became hoarse and her head pounded. Weiss tried to figure out the problem, and Winter kept repeating that she felt like she needed to get something out of her body, that she felt sick, and Mother said that it was Normal._

_Mother held Weiss when her trembling returned. Her Father insisted to Feed, but she didn’t understand. She watched Winter stare blankly at a nest of birds up in a tree higher than they were, and occasionally twitch. Weiss asked why her mouth hurt so horribly, and Mother and Father laughed. They told their Children to follow them somewhere, that they could get some food, and Weiss and Winter desperately followed._

_Their bodies began to shape themselves into their images, their minds began to form false memories. They learned that Father and Mother were their parents, now, and that they could come back to live with them in their beautiful home and they could finally be a family. Winter and Weiss always wanted a family and a beautiful home. They learned they were Winter Schnee and Weiss Schnee, now. They tried to argue, but everything hurt so much that they couldn’t put up much of a fight. The two they hated slowly became helpful, and Weiss watched her Mother and thought that she was beautiful. The world they once knew slowly faded from their minds, and their memories became faint._ _The orphanage was no longer people they knew_ _._

_They quickly became their first meal._

The soft crunch of forgotten leaves on the forest ground was comforting as it brushed past attentive eardrums, reminding Weiss that she was a being. She was a force. She was a constant in the universe. She mattered to the system of the world. There was a reason for her existence.

But it fell to naught on her fatigued body. Whatever her previous existence had been, she couldn't remember. How long had it been? Days? Weeks? Perhaps only hours? She had faint memories of a life she was no longer entirely sure had been her own. She and Winter desperately tried to hold onto it. But it no longer felt like them- it felt more like a storybook Father had given them to read, even though she knew he never had given them anything. The lines between ‘Weiss’ and ‘Weiss Schnee’ blended together. The other was, perhaps, a story in a book Weiss was never meant to finish.  

She needed to feed soon. The heavy aching in her bones were a sign of it.

She grimaced slightly at the thought. The thought that all of the tangible food she consumed did nothing to pad the coiled up monster beneath her skin. The thought that all her efforts were pointless. The thought that no matter how she tried, she'd always yearn for the warm, crimson, metallic liquid.

Frustrated, she gritted her teeth and continued on a path. She could beat this. She was _stronger_ than this.

The dizziness began.

She felt empty. Emptier than she'd ever felt. She vaguely heard Winter’s strained and damaged voice warble in her ears. She couldn't make out a single word, but she wasn't sure if she was meant to. Out of instinct, she began to breathe heavier than she ever had in her life. She had no reason to breathe anymore. Her dead lungs made no movement in her cold, heaving chest.

 _Feed._ A voice within her, beyond her spoke. The voice sounded like her Father- like her _new_ Father.

The leaves of the dark forest merged to become one blur, before her eyes sharply focused again. She winced. Her eyes focused on a small creature, her eyes focused even though she begged them not to. Her eyes focused on the small creature's throat, on the throbbing noise of the pumping, tiny heart. She couldn't even tell what type of animal it was. She didn't even want to be able to tell. The noise that escaped its lungs as she lunged and struck, hands digging into soft, fuzzy fur, teeth digging past skin, told her enough. She heard Winter scream somewhere near her, but her eyes fluttered closed as warm liquid filled her mouth and greeted her teeth on the trip down her throat.

_“You must eat!” Her Father, her new Father, spoke. Yelled. “You cannot starve yourselves.”_

Weiss felt sobs shudder through her as she continued to feed on the now limp animal in her hands, refusing to open her eyes. Refusing to look at it. Winter began to cry beside her as well.  The dead leaves crunched beneath them as they both collapsed to their knees. Helpless. The girls refused to stare at the pure white snow, now littered with splotches of red that ran from Weiss’s fingertips.

_“Winter, I don’t want to feed….” Weiss confided to her older sister their first night in their new, empty house. It was large, and they traveled together to not get lost._

_Winter frowned. “Are you hungry?”_

_Weiss nodded. Tears blurred her vision._

_Winter shuddered. “Me too.” Weiss tried not to stare at her sister’s new fangs._

_“I can still hear them crying.”_

_Winter nodded, and circled her arms around herself. “I know. Me too. But it was as if…… I hadn’t even known them. Even now- it’s so hard to remember….”_

_Weiss remembered the forest path, the cold, creaking noise of the orphanage, and the boy who died of a fever in the middle of the night. But it felt like a story she read in a book._

_“I know what you mean…”_

Winter was acutely aware that she was hungry, too. Weiss could sense it, and it made hot tears run down her lifeless face. 


	3. Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blake Belladonna lives in a small, cozy house that's been long forgotten.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw for description/reference of abuse, alcohol use, and implied suicide
> 
> rwby vol 6 got me hyped again so i really want to pick this up again, sorry for such a long wait!! i have no valid excuse lmaooooo

Empty hands traced the black, velvety texture of the picture frame edges. It was turned on its face. She couldn't turn it to face her. 

_ Staring out the broken window, Blake counted her blessings.  _

_ She had many things to be thankful for.  Was this not a roof over her head? Did she not get to eat at least once a day? Did she not have the warmth of a cot, and the security of her storybooks?  _

_ Humming a bit to herself, she glanced down at the large book in her small hands. Despite the near total darkness, Blake was gifted with the Faunus ability for nearly perfect eyesight in the dark. While usually this ability was used more for hunting-survival situations, she slowly came to the realization that perhaps these books were starting to become essential to her survival.  _

_ (She no longer enjoyed the warmth and safety of a candle, she grimaced thinking on what a previous punishment of hers had been. She gripped onto the book cover tightly, gritting her teeth as she fought to ignore the scorch marks and bruising on her body.) _

_ She focused on the book. The book was her weapon, and her safe haven. _

 

_ ‘...they hardly finished their meals, when the sound of the Beast’s footsteps approached them. Belle clung to her father in terror **-** ’ _

 

 

_ Two fuzzy, black cat ears stood to attention atop Blake's head as she heard the front door to the house creak open. Anxiety springing within her, she tossed the old book aside into a dark corner, and pulled the blanket over her again, quickly settling into her makeshift bed on the cold floor. She waited. Her breath waited in her lungs with her.  _

_ She was greeted with the soft steps of another Faunus of the house, Ilia.  _

_ She sighed a little, allowing herself to open her eyes once more and sit up to speak. She was silenced by her frantic packing.  _

_ “Get up, Blake,” Ilia urged, tossing her spare clothing into a bag. Blake hadn't ever seen that bag.  _

_ “What's going on?” _

_ “We’re leaving.”  _

_ “Leaving!” She exclaimed, though she had meant it to be more of a question. She sat up straighter.  _

_ “What do you mean, ‘leaving?’” _

_ “We’re leaving.” Ilia repeated. Blankly.  _

_ “The house is empty right now- save for you. This is our only chance.” Blake watched Ilia place a pistol into the bag. She scoffed a little.  _

_ “Do you believe it's any better out there? They'll kill you easily-" That's what he always told them, and he always told the truth- the one that had to be believed.  "That pistol won't be enough to defend you.”  _

_ “It's not to defend myself against anything.” Ilia responded, blankly again. Amber eyes watched Ilia’s hand grab one of the half empty wine bottles scattered about the house and take a big, long swig, before shuddering. She looked calmer afterwards. Blake grimaced inwardly. She willed her brain not to piece the puzzle together. _

_ “Ilia...”  _

_ “You'll die here, you know,” She interrupted, only slightly fazed by the old, cheap wine. “This is your chance to leave.” _

_ “Where are you going?” Blake tempted. Ilia paused.  _

_ “Anywhere but here.” _

_ Blake felt her blood run cold. Ilia smiled sadly.  _

_ “Won't you come with me?” _

_ Blake's vision blurred, her eyes beginning to sting. Ilia sighed. The cat Faunus glanced over at the bruises littering her arms. Ilia wouldn't be the first to leave, and she wouldn't be the last, but Blake feared the worst. She feared her leaving, leaving her to fend for herself.  Running was deliciously tempting. Running  _ again _ was dangerously terrifying. Her fear of failure weighed her down more than her will for freedom.  _

_ “I’m sorry.” Blake responded instead. There was no point in fighting this. It was long coming, and Blake felt safer in her books than in reality. She was a coward. She ran once and it didn't end well. She knew not to tempt fate twice.  _

_ And yet, staring up into the hollow, peaceful eyes made her restless.  It made her heart pound with adrenaline. It reminded her of every bruise, cut, scratch, and beating she's ever endured.  _

_ It reminded her of her home, her real home, with her mother and father and the fuzzy carpets and burning sun and cold nights and buzzing bugs and annoying schoolboys who pushed her much too forcefully playing tag so she scraped her knees on the tough sand and dirt- when those were the only types of injuries she needed to worry about. Accidents.  _

_ Ilia hugged her, and Blake couldn't help the choked sob that escaped her. _

 

_ \--- _

_ Her courage, she noted, grew greatly at moonlight. Or rather, her will to escape did. Her trembling hand reached for the grimy doorknob.  _

_ Somehow, Ilia managed to influence a yearn for freedom Blake hadn't truly felt in all her life. Every time Blake had parted her lips to say farewell, Ilia protested. She spoke of a freedom that had long since escaped the young Faunus, long since escaped any Faunus, awoke what had been dormant within her for many years. A freedom she hasn't felt since she was a child, running around in her mother’s flower-brimmed gardens and feeling the heat of the midday sun against her skin. The feeling of spring, of renewal.  _

_ But this renewed idea was too sweet for Blake to put down. The concept of a peaceful night versus a week under a roof in this house was too delicious to quit so easily. So instead, She had told Ilia to wait for her- wait until the sunlight of the next dawn, by the far edge of the forest. They could make it a few towns over. Attempt to start a new life before ending this one ultimately. Leave the latter for an escape plan, should it backfire. She could do it. What did she have to lose? _

_ She placed a bookmark in her worn out book, leaving it at her bedside. Unfinished, and she hoped it would stay that way. The book was a security blanket to weigh her down. She could write her own stories now. She could open the door. Freedom was a few feet away- freedom was going to brush past her as she sprinted through the woods, freedom would fill her lungs with a new spring day by morning. This was the end of the chapter, but not the story. Her epilogue was still to come- _

_ “And just  _ what _ do you think you're doing?” His voice questioned through the darkness.  _

_ Blake turned sharply. There was courage within her that was foreign, but it overpowered her. The pocket knife in her hand felt much bigger than it actually had been.  _

_ “I'm leaving, Adam.” _

_ “Is that so…?” His voice was not amused, but he attempted to color it so. With her ability to see in the dark, Blake spotted the now empty liquor bottle in his hands. The hand holding the pocket knife tightened around its worn-out handle. She could feel the spring morning in her veins, she was almost there. She could feel the rushing water of a cold river in her nerves, the suffocatingly sweet feeling of fresh air squeezing against her tired lungs, the satisfying idea of the sun burning her back and the sharp grass pricking at her ankles as she ran, the nips of bugs on her scarred arms and the warmth of Ilia’s hand as they ran, ran, ran passed sharp hills and into dark caverns and through towns that would turn them down, but she couldn’t care when Ilia and her were alive and breathing and running and hungry and laughing and crying. Maybe they wouldn’t be Blake and Ilia anymore. They didn’t have to be. They could be anyone they wanted. She was so close, this was her last trial. She could do it. She was almost there.  _

_ Adam took a step towards her. For once, she wasn’t scared. She braced for impact. She didn’t even feel the glass shatter against her head, it didn’t matter. She was almost there. She swung, somewhere, it impacted, she heard his voice fill and spill with pain. She couldn’t feel it anymore, she hardly realized she was pushed to the ground, until her world blurred around her. She didn’t care if her cuts had dirt stinging into them- it didn’t matter. She was almost there. Her grip on her knife was steel, so she jabbed at his ribcage when he brought the shattered bottle back at her skull. It didn’t hurt, but it rung in her ears this time. Something dragged down her neck, and she tried not to admit it was her own blood. That would mean defeat.  _

_ She slashed at his face, kicked at his hipbone like he kicked at Ilia’s last week when she purposely burned him with boiling water for the comment he made on Blake’s clothes. She felt blood that wasn’t hers flick onto her face and arms, and she cried, distantly she could feel the salt dragging down her cheeks, but she didn’t care. Adam scrambled back, it gave her a chance to the door again. To return to her freedom. She was almost there. Ilia was waiting for her. She had to survive, so Ilia would- Ilia had helped her survive so many other times. He pulled back at her hair, and she felt his fingers press into the cuts in her skull, and, _ oh god,  _ now that hurt. His fist crashed against the side of her face, and she squirmed and yowled and kicked her legs to get away. She had to get away. For Ilia, for the other Faunus they tried to help, for the children he recruited into a sick group of hate, for the chance of freedom, for the tiny Faunus boy who had been staying in the other sector that was much too young to be thinking of a hateful world that predestined them to this.  _

_ For the chance to see her parents again, if they would have her.  _

_ She swung at his jaw, feeling satisfied with the cracking sound and the pained noise that followed.  _

_ She could see her father again, she could apologize and humble herself at them, ask for forgiveness. She could feel the warmth of her mother’s smile, she could lay on the carpet and listen to her father sing to himself as he worked.  _

_ Adam lunged again, but Blake found some strength to roll out of range and scrambled up to the door again.  _

_ She could sleep in her old bed, maybe, one day. Have tea with her father. Forget a life as cruel as this. Help her mom water her flowers and cover up her arms and legs and lay on the grass, feel the earth pulsing beneath her and remind herself she was alive. She was almost there, almost there, Ilia. She felt her fingers touch the door again.  _

_ She was almost- _

 

Blake sighed, and the house sighed with her. Hollow, old, and lifelessly alive. 

 

In the sickest way, even in freedom, she was confined. But she was alone. 

 

At the very least, she could finish her book. 


	4. Yellow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dead people have ghosts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there really is no excuse this took forever and im sorry :c

She reached out and gently touched the yellow rose petals with fingers that weren't metal. 

_ Yang nervously, yet with interest, watched the television, her arms clutching the pillow to her front. Her wild hair, trapped in two messy pigtails, was covered beneath a warm blanket she hid under once the chill of watching for the paranormal got to her. Lilac eyes chased the fuzzy figures on the screen, shrouded by a green light.  _

_ “If you're here now,” one of the figures on the television spoke, his voice wavering in the empty house. His cameraman followed his movements. “Show us.”  _

_ Yang felt a chill run down her spine, but she couldn't look away. The men on the television were silent, before- _

_ Before Yang felt a weight clasp onto her shoulders, squeezing at her bones and chilling her skin. She couldn't help but let out a scream, scrambling off the couch in an attempt to get away. She took the pillow, blanket, and her empty popcorn bowl crashing to the ground with her, trembling as she turned around to face whatever demon awaited her.  _

_ Laughter met her ears, and she looked over towards the couch to see her mother, Summer, flipping on a light switch. Yang winced at the sudden light, before frowning.  _

_ “That was mean!” She huffed, crossing her arms and pouting childishly.  _

_ “And you,” Summer added as she crossed over and picked up the bowl off the floor and placed it on the coffee table.  “Are up past your bedtime, little miss.” _

_ “But this is the only times this show is on now!” She protested, and Summer laughed a bit again as she helped her up.  _

_ “And what did we tell you about watching that show?” _

_ Yang sighed, her bangs bouncing a bit as she did so in a way that made Summer smile.  _

_ “Not to watch it past my bedtime,” she said solemnly, before perking up in protest. “But-”  _

_ “No buts, except for yours getting into bed.” She interrupted, smiling as she pulled the blanket off the ground and tossed it towards the couch, before turning her daughter and marching her up the stairs.  _

_ “But mommmm,” she whined softly, protesting against the rule and against the yawn that revealed her true exhaustion. “I'm officially six now,” She motioned to the wall calendar which displayed her birthday being two days prior. “ I should be allowed another half hour…!” She wasn't really complaining, but rather trying to negotiate.  _

_ “Talk to me when you're seven.” Summer smiled softly at Yang, following her up the stairs and down the hallway.  _

_ “But if I don't start learning how to look for ghosts now, how am I supposed to catch up to the other ghost hunters in the business? Do you know how hard it is to get a job today?” She stated, practically reading from a script in her brain. Summer stopped them both, giving the small blonde an odd look.  _

_ “... No more sleepovers at Uncle Qrow’s for you.” She sighed, but still kept her soft smile. The two tiptoed into the room Yang shared with Ruby, who was peacefully sleeping in her bed with her stuffed corgi plush squished in her arms.  _

_ Summer places a finger against her lips to signal to stay quiet, and Yang mimicked with a smile, before heading towards her bed and hopping onto it. The springs of the mattress whispered complaints, but they ignored them as Summer quietly sat on the bed as well.  _

_ “I'll tell you what,” Summer whispered to Yang, who instinctively turned around and let Summer undo her messy pigtails and braid her hair loosely.  _

_ “If you behave all week, I'll let you stay up late on Friday's and watch all the ‘Paranormal Encounters’ you want. Is that a deal?”  _

_ Yang turned to face her, nodding excitedly.  _

_ “But that means sticking to your bedtime,” _

_ Yang nodded again, still excited.  _

_ “And eating all the vegetables Dad puts on your plate,”  _

_ Yang didn't hesitate when she nodded some more, because she knew pouting would easily get them to remove the vegetables.  _

_ “ _ And  _ not getting into anymore fights with the boys at school.” _

_ “It's not my fault they can't win any wrestling…!”  _

_ “Shh,” Summer coaxed her rowdy child, tucking her into bed.  _

_ “No more breaking their legs, arms, or any other body parts, unless they start to mess with you. Got it?” _

_ “Yes ma'am.” She yawned. Summer leaned forward and kissed her forehead.  _

_ “Goodnight.” _

Yang frowned, her metallic hand scrunching up her dark skirt. She stared at the grass beneath her feet, but even it looked lifeless. 

_ “Cookies are done!” Summer announced from the kitchen, removing her Halloween cookies from the oven. Yang bolted down the stairs, a three, almost four, year old Ruby clumsily following behind her big sister.  _

_ “Yes!” Yang exclaimed excitedly, grabbing a cookie off the tray and ignoring the heat. “These are the best!” _

_ “Put that down!” Summer laughed, taking the fresh cookie and placing it back on the tray. She winced at the burn against her fingertips. “I swear, you and your dad are the same- heat resistant and impatient.” She teased, and Yang giggled when Summer poked her nose.  _

_ “We still need to decorate these, little sun dragon.” _

_ “Mama, mama!” Ruby called, urging her mother to pick her up by raising her arms up and bouncing in place. Summer mimicked her daughter's excitement as she picked her up, kissing her cheeks and hoisting her on her hip.  _

_ “Mama, I want a cookie!” she pointed. “I want that one!” She clarified, pointing to the bat shaped one. Summer nodded.  _

_ “Okay, Ruby, once it cools down, that one’s all yours!” _

_ “Yay!” Ruby squealed in excitement, and Yang watched the exchange with a big smile.  _

Yang heard someone speaking, but it was very warbled in her young, confused ears. She shook her head. She didn’t understand. She didn’t understand………

_ “And here’s your cookies, sunshine.” Summer smiled, passing Yang a couple ghost-themed cookies. Yang beamed excitedly.  _

_ She hopped off the kitchen chair and ran over towards her dad, who was placing candy in an orange bowl.  _

_ “Boo!” She exclaimed, practically shoving the ghost cookie into his face and giggling when he feigned surprise.  _

Yang felt her vision blur, and it became really hard to swallow.

_ “Mom,” Yang whined weakly from the hospital bed. She didn't dare look to the right of her. “I'm scared.” _

_ Summer sighed, tears in her eyes as she squeezed her daughters left hand.  _

_ “I-I know, honey. But the doctors are going to help, okay?” _

_ It was the first time she could ever remember her mom so scared. Yang nodded, tears streaming down her face.  _

Yang bit her lip, beginning to tremble again. She had to be strong. She had to not cry. 

She glanced down at her prosthetic arm, and immediately her vision blurred with tears. 

_ “How do you feel, honeybee?” Summer asked Yang one morning, the latter becoming more and more familiar with the fact she was “part robot” now. She smiled a little at the thought, remembering how her mother and father used that to help her become more accepting of herself. And it certainly worked.  _

_ “A little sore,” she admitted, carefully picking up the spoonful of cereal with her right hand. She felt triumphant when she managed to get the spoon in her mouth.  _

_ “Did you see that?!” She exclaimed excitedly, mouth full of cereal.  _

_ “Good job, Yang!” Summer encouraged, stepping behind Yang and undoing her messy bed head braid. She figured she'd remind her to not chew with her mouth open some other time.  _

_ “Doc’ says she's improving faster than any of the other patients she's ever had,” Taiyang spoke up, entering the room and giving Summer a quick kiss. He kissed the top of Yang’s head, before reaching over to her cheek and pinching it.  _

_ “But I don't expect any less from this little dragon!” He teased. Yang whined and swatted him away.  _

_ “Daaad!” She groaned. “I'm trying to focus!”  She went back to scooping cereal onto the spoon with her new prosthetic, starting to truly get the hang of it. _

_ “Right. Focus. Got it.” He chuckled.  _

Yang stared ahead blankly, sniffling as she watched another relative she'd never met step off from behind the podium after paying Summer their respects. The rose stems in her hands were crushed now from how tightly she had been gripping them. From beside her, she heard Ruby say something to Taiyang, who barely offered a one word response to his five year old. Yang frowned more, to the point it became a grimace, and then a soft, choked sob, and her hands flew to cover her face. She felt someone hug her, but she didn't bother checking who as she began to cry again, trembling fingers, both human and metal, still laced around flowers as she openly cried again. Ruby began to whine and cry too, though Yang wasn't sure she truly understood what was happening. 

She herself wasn't truly understanding. She was only seven. She was scared, she wanted her mom. She  _ needed _ her mom. 

She thought about all the nights Taiyang was spending sitting, staring, lifelessly eating. Silent. Weak. 

She not only lost her mom, but now she was losing her dad. 

A choked noise ripped from her throat as more tears decorated her face. 

Her tear blurred vision momentarily traveled to the picture of Summer above an empty, closed casket. 

_ “Mama, mama!” Ruby cried, running into the living room and into her mom's arms.  _

_ “Ruby? What's wrong?” Summer asked with concern. Yang immediately bolted in as well, though more excited than her distressed toddler.  _

_ “Mom! We saw a ghost!” _

_ “A ghost?” Taiyang and Summer both said in unison, surprised.  _

_ “Uh-huh!”  _

_ “Nuh-uh!” Ruby protested. “It was dressed all in black, and it was watching us from the neighbor’s tree!”  _

_ Summer and Taiyang both shared a look, and Yang didn't understand how they weren't excited.  _

_ “It was totally a ghost.” Yang argued, and since she was the older sister that meant she was right.  _

_ “No way!” Ruby protested. “Ghosts can't breathe like that.” _

_ “Breathe?” Taiyang asked.  _

_ “Yeah!” Ruby confirmed, before Yang butted in excitedly.  _

_ “It was breathing really loudly, and had really red eyes.”  _

_ “I don't think that was really a ghost at all.” He frowned. “Stay inside from now on.” Taiyang said instead, guiding his kids away from the doorway and closing the windows. He looked very serious- serious in a way Yang never saw before. She frowned.  _

_ Why weren’t they excited?  _

Yang didn't eat anything at the event afterwards. 

It was in their house, but it didn't feel like home anymore. It was too dark, too gloomy. Too many people in sad colors with sad faces. Yang didn't like how many people came up to her and apologized, and hugged her, and cried at her. She didn't speak to any of them, but instead stared at her shoes. 

She circled the house many times, feeling a pang of sadness every time she saw the yellow picture frame on the shelf was facing down. She knew that photo was of a Christmas they'd had a few years back. She knew that Summer was in that photo- alive and smiling.

Her sixth time around, she reached up and grabbed the yellow photo frame, looking at the photo. Summer smiling happily dressed in all red and white, one arm around Yang and one clutching a tiny, one year old Ruby. Yang sniffled again, surprised when her teardrops hit the photo. She clutched it to her chest again, feeling sobs bubbling up inside her.    
  


It didn’t make sense. Her mom couldn’t be dead….. Dead people had ghosts, right?

Yeah, she couldn’t be dead, Yang thought to herself as she tucked herself in, tucked Ruby in and kissed all her stuffed animals goodnight like Summer would do. 

Yeah, she wouldn’t be dead, Yang thought to herself as she coaxed her dad out of bed, as she helped Ruby get dressed and cooked breakfast and took them both to school and made sure to stop by the neighbor’s fence so she and Ruby could wave goodbye to their dog like Summer would do- as she filled in all the mom-shaped holes in their lives when nobody else could. 

She wasn’t dead, and she would prove it to her dad. To her uncle, to all the people she’d never met that showed up to the funeral with an empty casket. She would prove it. 

She would find her mom, and bring her home. 


End file.
